#obeisance

On Obeisance

#104

obeisance

displaying humble submission and respect

She wearied of being obeisant to this man, or that; she wearied of ducking her head, or lowering her gaze. She wearied of lip service. She wearied of her own weakness that meant she had no choice but to play along with someone else’s games.

Why should she offer up deference that all but choked her? More binding than chains, to give as much to another; just one more way to set a tone that would be all too difficult to break from later - as ever, once a beast has seen you show weakness, or fear? There is no going back, no erasing what they’ve had a taste of.

So she raised her head high, and held the gazes of those about her - stubborn, and unafraid - unwilling to give ground. 

Save for one. What she would not give, she knew he would simply take, should the notion strike him. And ultimately, what she wanted from him...she’d frustratedly give ground for. She’d never fooled herself about what people were...especially not ones like him; though she gave no more than she must, and not without fierce reluctance. Thus grudging obeisance, when it was demanded, was given...much to her own chagrin, and surprise.

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT-STORMGOD

Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru’s Sayings) by Sri Muruganar - V. 961 ( Non-Dual Knowledge ) (pdf)

Sadhu Om: 

‘Sivoham’ is the final state of experience which results from the death of the ego. But the ego will never die by merely doing japa* of or meditating ‘Sivoham, Sivoham’ [I am Siva, I am Siva]. 

In order to make the ego die, the practice of ‘Sivaya Namah’ [complete obeisance to Lord Siva, the Supreme Reality] is necessary.

In order to make the ego do obeisance [i.e. surrender itself] to Lord Siva, one must attend to its source and thereby prevent it from rising [see Ulladu Narpadu verse 27, “The state in which ‘I’ does not rise, is the state ‘We are That’. Unless one scrutinizes the source whence ‘I’ rises, how to attain the state of egolessness, in which ‘I’ does not rise?...”].

Therefore Self-enquiry, the true practice of ‘Sivaya Namah’, alone is the sadhana* which will destroy the ego and thereby bring about the true experience of ‘Sivoham’.